Entertainment Blogs

An online journal about visual art, the urban landscape and design. Mary Louise Schumacher, the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic, leads the discussion and a community of writers contribute to the dialogue.

A week on the road for art

I will never forget the first time I crossed a state line, on the border between California and Oregon. I remember wearing a flippy skirt and flip flops, stepping out onto the gravel beside the whooosh of freeway traffic to snap a picture in front of the "Welcome to Oregon" sign. I stretched my hands up into a ta-da-we-did-it pose.

I was about 10-years-old. That excitement is something many of you native Wisconsinites will not relate to. You didn't grow up in a place where the closest state line was a day's drive away, or a few, depending on which direction you were headed.

But that sense of adventure that runs through the veins of America's wending highway system is something we all know. I thought a lot about the idea of the "road trip" this week, as I spent several days traveling to places like Princeton, Sheboygan, Elkhart Lake, West Bend and Racine to see art for a Weekend Cue cover story on arty day trips that will run a week from today.

It was coincidentally the week that marked the 50th anniversary of the legislation that created the nation's highway system. NPR did a whole series of stories on it, which I listened to while driving.

One of the thoughts that I had is this. There is something wonderful and apt about putting a stretch of snaking, grey plainness between where I am and a place where I'll see art. The urban nature of home gets visually pushed back and yields bit by bit to gentle curves of green and whisps of blue lake, too. There is a protective buffer between the gazillion emails in my inbox at work, the stack of unopened mail at home and the experience of seeing art.

At week's end, I'm mindful of a simple truth. A single art exhibit is worth a tank of gas -- even at today's prices -- and a day of my life. And looking at art, over time, is an essential journey and perhaps the best adventure of my adult life. When it comes to crossing into unfamiliar territories and the sense of discovery that goes with that, nothing quite compares.

E-mail Newsletter

Keep up with the art scene and trends in urban design with art and architecture critic Mary Louise Schumacher. Every week, you'll get the latest reviews, musings on architecture and her picks for what to do on the weekends.